Decree-Law No. 85/2026

Decree-Law No. 85/2026 of 13 April establishes the State Simplification and Technology Network as the framework for overseeing the State’s technological reform and abolishes the Council for Digital in Public Administration. The decree-law assigns the Network the mission of supporting the modernisation of Public Administration, ensuring the development and implementation of digital public services, as well as the cross-cutting and unified management of the modernisation of the State’s systems, applications and technological tools. The Network operates under the authority of the Minister for State Reform.

The decree-law also defines the composition of the Network, which includes the member of Government responsible for State reform, the Coordination Committee for the Digital Strategy, and the technical groups, as well as the Committee’s responsibilities. These responsibilities include monitoring the implementation of digital transformation measures in Public Administration, promoting the implementation of the Portugal Digital Strategy, overseeing a cross-cutting architecture and common governance for information systems, promoting interoperability between State systems, implementing the national data policy, and harmonising public procurement in information and communication technologies.

A prior authorisation regime is also established for certain projects, investments and measures that are critical to digitalisation. These include investment plans in information technologies, procurements exceeding €2 million, artificial intelligence projects, sovereign cloud projects, projects integrated into the national data centre strategy, and interoperability measures between Public Administration services.

This document is available in Portuguese only.